He became the abbot of a new house of his order at Revesby in Lincolnshire, and later, abbot of Rievaulx itself in 1147. He would spend the remainder of his life in the monastery. Under his administration the size of the abbey rose to some six hundred monks. He also made annual visits to several other Cistercian houses in England and Scotland, with other visits to places as far as Citeaux and Clairvaux. These visits may have compromised his health, for he is recorded as suffering from a very painful, unspecified disease in his later years.

He wrote several influential books on spirituality, among them The Mirror of Charity (perhaps at the request of Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux) and Spiritual Friendship. He also wrote seven works of history, addressing two of them to Henry II of England, advising him how to be a good king and declaring him to be the true descendent of Anglo-Saxon kings. Until the twentieth century Aelred was generally known as a historian rather than a spiritual writer; for many centuries his most famous work was his "Life of Saint Edward, King and Confessor."

Writings

For his efforts in writing and administration he has been called by David Knowles the "St. Bernard of the north". He has also been described by David Knowles, a historian of monasticism in England, as "a singularly attractive figure... No other English monk of the twelfth century so lingers in the memory.

All of Aelred's works have appeared in translation, most in English, but all in French. They include Mirror of Charity, Spiritual Friendship, Rule of Life for a Recluse, Jesus as a Boy of Twelve, Pastoral Prayer, On the Soul, Genealogy of the Kings of the English, Battle of the Standard, Lament for the Death of King David of Scotland, The Life of Saint Edward, King and Confessor, The Life of Saint Ninian, On the Saints of Hexham, and A Certain Wonderful Miracle, as well as many sermons.

Sexuality

Ailred's works, private letters and his Life by Walter Daniel, another twelfth-century monk of Rievaulx, have led some scholars to infer from that he was homosexual. In De institutione inclusarum, he writes "While I was still a schoolboy, the charm of my friends greatly captivated me, so that among the foibles and failings with which that age is fraught, my mind surrendered itself completely to emotion and devoted itself to love. Nothing seemed sweeter or nicer or more worthwhile than to love and be loved." In writing to an anchoress in "Rule of Life as a Recluse, Aelred speaks of this as the time when she held on to her virtue and he lost his.

Several of his works, however, encourage virginity among the unmarried and chastity (not abstinence) in marriage and widowhood and warn against any sexual activity outside of marriage; in all his works he treats same-sex and opposite-sex attraction as equally possible and equally dangerous to one's oath to celibacy. At the same time, he was compassionate about human failings, criticised the absence of pastoral care for the Nun of Watton and her pregnancy while within a Gilbertine convent.

Secondary literature

Dutton, Marsha L.,"Friendship and the Love of God: Augustine's Teaching in the Confessions and Aelred of Rievaulx's Response in Spiritual Friendship", in American Benedictine Review 56 (2005), p. 3-40.

Dutton, Marsha L., "Sancto Dunstano Cooperante: Aelred of Rievaulx’s Advice to the Heir to the English Throne in Genealogy of the Kings of the English", in: Emilia Jamroziak and Janet Burton (ed.), Religious and Laity in Northern Europe 1000-1400: Interaction, Negotiation, and Power.. Turnhout: Brepols, 2007, p. 183–195.

Dutton, Marsha L., "A Historian's Historian: The Place of Bede in Aelred's Contributions to the New History of his Age", in: Marsha L. Dutton, Daniel M. La Corte, and Paul Lockey (ed.), Truth as Gift: Studies in Cistercian History in Honor of John R. Sommerfeldt (Cistercian Studies Series 204). Kalamazoo: Cistercian, 2004, p. 407–48.

Freeman, Elizabeth, "The Many Functions of Cistercian Histories Using Aelred of Rievaulx’s Relatio de Standardo as a Case Study", in: Erik Kooper (ed.) The Medieval Chronicle: Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on the Medieval Chronicle. Amsterdam, Atlanta: Rodopi, 1999, p. 124–32.